SAO: Salvation
by JAaron Lambing
Summary: A husband and wife get trapped in the VRMMORPG Sword Art Online. The two fight for survival in a game where when you die in the game, you die in real life.


"Honey, I'm home!" A female's voice called out as a door shut somewhere in the small one bedroom house.

A male's voice replied, "I'm in the living room."

The male's voice was followed by the sound of swords clashing. The female made her way through the front hallway with two large bags. The hallway was filled with pictures of a young couple. The female in the pictures had long black hair and big brown eyes. Her olive tan skin made the pale male standing next to here seem as if he glowed. The male in the pictures had a perfectly trimmed dark brown goatee in all the pictures. His short brown hair was always slicked back. He wore glasses, which only brought out his bright blue eyes. In all the pictures, the male stood at least a full foot taller than the female, and they were always smiling.

The female made her way through an open archway at the end of the hallway and into the large living room. There was a large flatscreen TV with a hack-and-slash video game on the screen. A large black leather sofa took up the middle of the living room. A long brown haired male sat in front of the sofa.

As the female walked past the sofa, she smiled. The male was the one in the pictures, except he had a full beard now and it was not very well groomed. Dark bags were under his eyes, and he sat in a wheelchair. He sat down his controller and turned to face her.

"Did your shopping go well?" The male asked.

The female continued to smile, and nodded her head yes, "It sure did."

The female thrusted one of the bags into the male's lap. The male looked down to see a large box gift wrapped. He quickly looked up at her. She laughed, "Happy birthday honey."

The male smiled a half smile in response, "Thanks…"

"I know the last month has been hard on you since your accident. The doctors say it will take time for you to be able to walk, but that's no excuse for not celebrating the man-I-love's birthday."

The male laughed, "Sorry, don't mean to ruin the mood."

The female tapped her foot, "It's fine. Well? Open it already."

The male tore into the gift, revealing a new NerveGear. The male's face lit up. The female grinned, "There are 10,000 of them in the world. Took me several hours of waiting in line to get that."

"I've been reading up on this. Sword Art Online, the first ever fully VRMMORPG." The male replied, smiling ear to ear.

His smile quickly faded, and despair was replaced his warm smile. The male sat the NerveGear on the sofa, "I wouldn't want to play it all by myself though. It would get really lonely."

The female held up the second bag, "I bought two."

The male's face lit up again. The female walked over and hugged him. The male gave her a huge kiss on her cheek, "Thank you."

The female laughed, "So what are we waiting for?"

The male grabbed his NerveGear, and the two made their way through the living room which was connected to a kitchen, and then to their bedroom. The bedroom was very plain. Sitting in the center of the room was a large king sized bed. On either side of the bed was a small nightstand. At the foot of the bed was a large dresser. To the right of the bed was a door that led to their messy bathroom.

The male pulled himself from his wheelchair and onto his bed. The female hooked both NerveGears into the outlet to charge them, before sitting down next to the male. The male started to put the NerveGear on when the female stopped him, "Now remember, we have a dinner with your brother at ten tonight."

"I remember. It's still early, we'll have plenty of time."

"I just wanted to remind you. I know how you are with your new games."

The male laughed, "It's not just me."

"One time! I got into a game one time where I forgot about a dentist appointment."

The male put the NerveGear on, "LINK START!"

The male did all the needed setups. He found it to be very weird that he had to pat his body down to calibrate the NerveGear, but shook it off once he got to the character creator. It was by far the most in depth creator he had even seen. After making a character that looked almost just like he was in the pictures, except he was taller and buffer. He stopped to think of a name that his wife would know, and always came up with his normal gamer tag; Temno.

A bright white light flashed as he hit confirm. His vision quickly cleared and he was in a large open plaza with a large water fountain in the middle. People were appearing all around him. At this rate it would take forever to find his wife. Temno kept scanning for his wife, but all he saw were really young girls, most likely teenage boys wanting to play as girls.

Just as he was about to walk through the crowd when a hand touched his shoulder, and a familiar voice called to him, "Temno, really?"

The male turned to see a young female standing behind him. She had long black hair pulled back into a ponytail. A named flashed over her health bar above her head, "Rain, really?"

Rain laughed, "It's the only name I could think of. Besides, I've been waiting here for almost thirty minutes."

Temno turned red, "Sorry, you know me, I take forever to make an avatar. Take it you used a preset?"

The two laughed for a few minutes, before Rain broke the laughter, "How are your legs here?"

Temno shrugged, "Let's find out."

Temno took one slow step, then another. Before long he was running around the fountain, laughing like a madman. Tears of joy ran down his face. Rain laughed at her husband. Temno finally stopped running, and looked around. Everyone around them seemed to have completely ignored the psycho running in circles, and were budding up with others. Temno took Rain's hand, "Let's get going. I want to explore more."

The two ran through the streets, exiting the city. The two ran through a large open field, stopping as two boars appeared out of thin air. Temno summoned a short sword out of thin air, shouting, "They are mine!"

Temno charged at the two boars, slashing the first one. It's health only dropped a quarter of the way. The surprise attack seemed to stun the boar, but the second boar was able to land a hard blow with its tusk to Temno's back, knocking him down. The first boar than recovered and was now charging him.

Temno was able to pull up his sword, getting ready to block the attack when Rain jumped in and parried the attack. Temno got up, "I guess I was overconfident."

"You are welcomed by the way."

Temno laughed, and charged the first boar which was at half health now. With several strikes and blocks, the two boars' health hit zero and they vanished. Temno sat down, his health a three quarters depleted and began to laugh, "Who would have thought that boars would kick my ass?"

Rain stood over him, "We are just level one right now and you rushed into battle. We are going to need to grind if we are wanting to charge into battle like that."

Rain offered her hand to Temno. Temno took it, and she helped him up. Temno shook his head, "I hate grinding."

"I do too." Rain replied.

For the next three hours, the two killed about fifty boars. Their inventories full of boar hides, tusks, and meat. Temno finally collapsed, lying in the grass. Rain laughed, "You dead yet?"

"Not yet, but if I take another beating like the last one, I will be."

Rain looked up, "We should head back to town to sale this stuff and heal up. You keep trying to tank in this low level gear, you're going to get yourself killed."

Temno pushed himself to get up, "You're right, but atleast I have someone to back me up."

Rain laughed, "How many levels did you gain?"

"I managed to get to level three, but my tracking and skinning skills are both level five. How about you?"

"I too am level three, but I only got tracking to level two but skinning is level seven."

"Nice! Wait a second…"

"What's up?"

Temno started laughing. Rain raised an eyebrow in confusion, "Did I miss something?"

"I was going though my skills, and it looks like I unlocked a unique skill."

"Oh really, and what would that be?"

"It's called Berserker…"

"What does it do?"

"It reads that the more damage I take, the stronger my attacks become. I also gain more health points than others as I level. On top of that, I can wield two handed weapons as if they were one handed. That skill is a bit overkill, don't you think?"

"A little bit. Wonder how you got that?" Rain asked.

"I honestly don't know. I know on the forums they said that there were ten unique skills that players could unlock after the 90th floor was beat. I don't know why I have it now."

Rain shrugged, "I wouldn't know. Maybe the creator heard it was your birthday, or maybe he heard of your accident. Who knows. All I know is I am getting hungry. Let's head to town and sell this stuff already."

Temno nodded in agreement. The two head to the first town, which was still crowded. Temno made his way into a small NPC owned store. The NPC was a little old man, who could not open his eyes to save his life. He was completely bald, and wore a brown shirt and pants.

Temno browsed the NPC's goods. Rain soon followed, "Hey, I just heard some people talking in the streets. They can't log out, and the game masters' aren't answering their calls."

Temno looked Rain in the eyes, "A glitch maybe, and the game masters are too busy fixing it to answer."

Rain stomped her feet, "I am starving and can't log out. This is bullshit."

She started pulling at an imaginary helmet. Temno crossed his arms, "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to take the NerveGear off so I can go eat."

"That's not going to work. The Nervegear paralyzes your body so you don't move and hurt yourself."

Rain puffed up her cheeks, "This is bullshit! I paid way too much money for this game to die of hunger on day one."

"It's fine, they will fix it. Can't kill 10,000 players on launch. That will be bad for any company." Temno pulled up his menu up, "It's only five. Let's go to the fountain and see what is going on."

Rain and Temno left the shop and journey to the starting plaza. Hundreds of players gathered, all panicking about not being able to log out. Rain and Temno sat at the fountain, listening to the panicked players. Temno remained calm, trying his best to keep his wife calmed. He could feel panic setting in the pit of his stomach, but he had to be…

 _Ding! Ding! Ding!_

A loud bell started ringing in the distance, and players began to teleport in. The plaza soon filled with players, Temno losing track after a thousand. Then the sky over the plaza turned red. What seemed to be blood dripping from the sky, which formed a cloaked figure.

The figure began to speak, but Temno zoned out. He could not believe what he was hearing. If they died in the game, they would die in real life. No one could remove the NerveGear, or that would kill them too. Than the figure gave them all mirrors, which turned everyone into what they looked like in real life. Temno looked at Rain. Temno had his beard again, and his long hair. Rain looked just like she always did.

Temno grabbed Rain's hand, "We need to go! Now!"

Temno pulled Rain, and started to make a mad dash out of the city. The two just kept running, wheezing in and out of alleys. Temno could hear the screams and cries of the other players coming from the plaza, but he ignored it. The two did not speak until they were almost two miles away from the city.

Temno looked out at the grassy fields, then to his wife. Her olive tan skin was almost as pale as his own, her eyes so dilated that her pupils were almost non-existent. Temno pulled her close, and hugged her. His beard covered her face, "Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you."

Rain pushed away away, "And what about our bodies in the real world or all the children who are gonna die here?"

Temno tapped his foot thinking, "Our bodies will be fine. My brother will be by as soon as we don't show up at his house and don't call. He'll see to it that we survive in the real world. Ask for the children and other players; I only hope everyone can work together and protect one another. I know it's heartless, but my only concern is you."

Rain went back to Temno and hugged him, Temno wrapped his arms around her, fire in his eyes, "I will get us out of here. I refuse to fail a second time."


End file.
